I live for lifes' little challenges! LOL, yeah right!!! I'm just a little crazier than the rest of y'all…

thanksgiving

The plan, to make a pumpkin and an apple pie for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, today.

step 1 – Procrastinate: Wake up intend to make pies at lunch time. At lunch time be so busy working and keeping the peace with the handful decide to wait till the afternoon, in the afternoon decide it is to hot from cooking all day and decide to wait till the kids go to bed, play on Facebook and not actually get started on any pie sort of prep till after 8 (when all the stores closed till Friday). Try to convince Grandma she wants to make the pies, she does not. Sigh, and get started.

Step 2 – Hardware: Discover that you only have 1 pie pan that is accessible and the other 4 are all packed away in a box somewhere or other… So you can only make 1 pie, unless of course you would use a bread or cake pan to make a pie – this idea is vetoed by Grandmother repeatedly. So decide that you will make a pumpkin pie and serve sliced cinnamon apples as a side instead of in an apple pie for dessert. Also decide you will make an apple pie next week for #1 who is going to wake up very disappointed to find no apple pie!

Step 3 – Filling Ingredients: Pull out the can of pumpkin pie mix and read instructions, look for the can of evaporated milk that the can says you need only to discover that you don’t have any, but you do have not 1 but 3 cans of condensed milk. Consult the internet, no they are not the same and can not be substituted for one another. Consult the internet and look for evaporated milk substitutions find buttermilk (which will give finished pie a tangy flavor), half and half (for a rich pie) and all sorts of options using other items you don’t have – powdered milk, soy milk, almond milk, decide to just mix whipping cream and milk and see how it goes. Realize you have no idea where the mixing bowls are and use a cooking pot instead.

Step 4 – Pie crust recipe: Remember that all the cook books are packed. Also remember that Tall Man is picky with pie crusts and the only one you have ever made that he truly liked was your great-grandmothers recipe. Ask Grandma for the recipe – shocker she did not bring a copy of it cross-country with her for her visit. Search email for recipe, finally find it under pie dough (really Grandma? Dough? Not crust?).

Step 5 – Pie crust assembly: I have all the ingredients, woo hoo! While opening the can of shorting Tall Man rubs some of it on your nose, go to retaliate and get scolded by Grandma for bothering him when he’s not feeling well… Again use a pot to mix the “dough” in. Realize the pastry cutter is also packed and grab a fork. Pull out the cutting board to roll out the crust and realize you also have no rolling pin and grab a McDonalds Shrek drinking glass for the job. It looks a mess, but it will have to do!!!

Step 6 – Baking: Put the misshapen pie crust in the lone pie pan, dump the filling on the crust – making sure to splash it all down your shirt in the process, and throw it in the oven praying that in 55 minutes you will have a pumpkin pie that looks good enough to eat and tastes good to boot! (at least you know that the pie crust passes Tall Mans taste test!)

Thanksgiving must go on, even in the midst of our mess of a move!!! Tall Man’s parents are coming, My mother has flown in from the other side of the country and the cooking has started!

So for a last minute super easy super quick wall decor we made a family turkey. The cost for this project ( if you were to go and buy construction paper and a glue stick) would be under $3. And I threw it together in less than 15 minutes.

1st make the feathers – Trace 1 hand of each household member using alternate colors of paper, fold paper in half and cut out 2 identical (but opposite hands).

Next make the turkeys body by cutting out a bowling pin/ butternut squash shape, use your glue stick to glue on a small triangle for the beak, a small circle for the eye, and the pilgrim hat (a square with a thin rectangle for the brim).

Attach your turkey to the wall ( tacks, staples, tape, chewing gum – whatever you feel comfortable with I used a piece of tape on each side of the turkey where the feathers would cover it.

Now glue your Feather hands on to the turkey body using the glue stick, starting with the biggest set of hands and working down to the smallest.